Study Task 1 Maccabees Go

Choosing from last years Secret 7's options, without ever listening to the Maccabees before but having heard of them I went for 'Go' and began sketching on instinct on the song name itself.

For the obvious choice I had bang drawings for the excitement and predicament of 'Go',  go signs and a lollipop man/lady, mouths shouting 'Go'. Ambiguous, I had a party invite insinuating to 'Go', continuous shapes overlapping and going round, desert waves from afar insinuating adventure into the unknown and the parrot flying away in stages.

I decided to combine the mouths and bangs together as they gave the same vibe of excitement and shouting/mouthing 'Go'. In the crit comments included 'DIY' looking/punk vibe and people liked that the mouths were illustrated. I felt pressured for time in this task as I want a cover to look its best but just in time I managed to put together what it would generally look like. The overlapping of the bangs and mouths give it layers and depth which is more interesting than a flat design.

The birds seemed like the most unique ambitious idea out of the ones I sketched and felt it would be very different to other peoples ideas and went for a really colourful parrot setting off in the sunset. I had to take the background off google as I was pressed for time, but I love painting and would definitely try and paint for Secret 7.

I have learnt from this to definitely not act on instinct, even though my designs fitted what I thought the song would be about. In future I will at least have a brief listen to the song. Thankfully, my ambiguous bird cover resonated with the sadness of the song and was picked as the final out of covers for 'Go'. It was unexpected and I was so happy! It has encouraged me to illustrate/paint/draw and use other practical methods before going to the computer and has made me feel I have a quite different style amongst others, in this instance anyway.

I am very proud that people liked my illustrations as I haven't shown people my drawings and haven't wanted to draw in a while but this brief is really exciting. Aware of the songs tone I'd cool the tones of the cover down definitely, but overall am really happy.